Server/SIOV-R2

Scalable I/O Virtualization (SIOV)

SIOV is hardware-assisted I/O virtualization designed for the hyperscale era, with the potential to support thousands of virtualized workloads per server.

• SIOV moves the non-performance-critical virtualization and management logic off the device and into the virtualization stack. It uses a scalable identifier on the device to address the workloads’ memory.

SIOV delivers key benefits vs. prior art:

• Reduces the per-VM virtualization cost on the devices
• More efficiently supports large numbers of VMs and containers
• Provides more flexibility to the virtualization stack for provisioning & composability.

Value Proposition: Virtualized I/O devices become much more configurable and scalable while delivering near-native performance to each VM/container/microservice, with support for confidential computing.

SIOV R1

Scalable I/O Virtualization, Revision 1 was contributed to OCP by Intel and Microsoft:

• SIOV R1

SIOV R2

Scalable I/O Virtualization, Revision 2 workstream scope:

• Ensure specification is compatible across multiple host and device architectures to provide a consistent usability experience.
• Ensure specification meets new, emerging, and complementary usages (confidential computing, etc.).
• Ensure a viable ecosystem transition path to SIOV Revision 2.0 from existing ecosystem (SR-IOV, SIOV R1).

SIOV R2 Overview:

• SIOV R2 Workstream Overview.PPT

Server Project Updates on SIOV R2

• June 2023: SIOV R2 - June'23 Server Project Update.PPT
• March 2024: SIOV R2 - March'24 Server Project Update.PPT